When I received the HTC Thunderbolt the day before it hit shelves at Verizon Wireless I was admittedly tempted to quickly shoot a review out to “beat the competition”. Instead, however, I have spent the last couple weeks with the device in order to offer you a complete, comprehensive understanding of the device.

Hardware

The Thunderbolt is a culmination of the evolutionary path that was set by HTC’s best devices over the past year. Holding this phone in my hand, I don’t feel like it’s a “new device” per se. I feel the soft touch plastic coating on the back cover, same as the Nexus One. Underneath that soft touch battery plate is a series of copper colored tabs for HTC’s upcoming QI inductive charging system for their next generation line of phones. The QI battery plate to work with these tabs is due out in May, but a recent hands-on with one gave me the opportunity to see the device with a wireless charger option that will only be available through HTC.

There is a larger kickstand, more like the HD7 than the EVO 4G, that can support both landscape and portrait viewing. A speaker underneath the kickstand produces more than enough volume when the kickstand is covering it, and even more when it’s open. In terms of quality, the Thunderbolt’s speaker is comparable with that of other high-end smartphones.

The 4.3-inch screen, the 1.2 megapixel front-facing camera, the soft button layout, even the weight are all a throwback to the EVO 4G, yet they feel completely different in the hand. The bezel on the phone is extremely thin, and the glass screen of the phone is slightly recessed into the plastic casing, offering a slight gap in-between the phone and a surface, should the phone be set screen-side down. The notification light, which appears to only shine in green for notifications and when fully-charged and then orange when charging, is hidden inside the earphone speaker grille of the phone. This move makes it difficult to catch a notification out of the corner of your eye, making it so you need to be looking right at the phone to see if the light is blinking.

Having had the chance to use the devices that led up to the Thunderbolt, it’s as though HTC’s design has grown up over the past year and this was the result.

Android 2.2 with Sense UI

Historically, I have opposed manufacturer User Interface “improvements”, and while I still wish that manufacturers were more comfortable relying on Google and going with the “stock” experience, I can safely say that I dislike HTC’s Sense UI overlay least of all.

While the weather animations, activated by enabling the Sense Clock and Weather widgets, and the complete theming skins that change everything from the wallpaper to the lock screen and the notification drawer create a fantastic looking system, it’s not enough. The Sense launcher, menu system, and altered dialer all cause their own little problems for users. The launcher’s personalize button, which is a replacement for the browser button in Sense UI, is useless. You can access personalize features in two other ways on the homescreen without the button. A browser, or even better, a user customizable button in that spot would be a much better choice.

The menu’s are laid out differently from stock, which could offer a new user an improved way to find settings. Personally, I find the layout to be more complicated, especially when it comes to settings like the sound controls where it’s clear you’re expected to want to use one of the Sense sound kits instead of setting your own.

Finally, the dialer has been adjusted in a way that obfuscates one of my favorite things about Android, Google Voice integration. The problem stems from displaying a GV access number instead of who you are calling when you make a call, due to the method in which Google makes a call. It’s a small issue, but one that highlights the lack of fluid design within Sense UI as a proper Android skin.

Problems aside, I dislike this Android overlay the least of the most common, and have no issues using it on a day to day basis.

LTE

Verizon’s shining jewel, the biggest selling point for the Thunderbolt is LTE on the 700MHz frequency. By now, you’ve already seen exclamations across the internet about how blazing fast the speeds on this network are. These claims are all true. Painfully true, in fact. Seeing 18Mbps download speeds on my cellphone when not connected to WiFi is not something I thought would happen anytime soon.

Creating a wireless hotspot inside an LTE network allows you to share this great speed with up to eight devices. So far, I’ve been streaming Netflix on three separate computers and still been able to use the phone to surf the web with barely any difference in performance, giving a nod to the idea that an LTE hotspot could be your next broadband connection.

The LTE radio in the Thunderbolt allows the phone to access voice and data at the same time on Verizon Wireless, and delivers a great experience as long as you are inside an LTE area, but comes at the worst of costs. When inside an LTE network, the battery life on the Thunderbolt borders on abysmal. To compound the issue, there’s no way inside the software to disable LTE, like you could on the EVO 4G. If you are keen on poking and prodding at your phone with rooting and modding, the ability to disable LTE has been added by homebrew developers. An extended battery, available at Verizon, will solve your LTE battery life woes, but greatly changes the shape and weight of the phone. Just to be clear: When not in an LTE network ready area, the LTE radio shuts itself off somehow, and the battery life on the device triples as it relies on regular old 3G to access data.

Should you leave an LTE network, the Thunderbolt will gracefully shift to Verizon’s trusty 3G network. When you return to LTE however, the transition is somewhat less than graceful. If you are streaming music or downloading a file while travelling from 3G to LTE, expect there to be some problems, however temporary. Slacker Radio stopped playing all together for about 10 seconds while 3G shifted into LTE, and then picked right back up on its own.

Performance and Entertainment

The Thunderbolt’s 1.2GHz second generation Snapdragon processor has more than enough power for this phone. Coupled with plenty of RAM and a nice GPU it casts a long shadow over dual-core processor devices that are not capable of delivering such a smooth user experience. When not connected to LTE, the Thunderbolt really is a superior current generation phone. Since it’s running the latest Qualcomm chipset, the Thunderbolt also has the ability to tap into OpenSLES Android API’s to deliver SRS Labs’ “enhanced sound” in the built in movie player. While the phone does not come with a movie on deck, users can load any digital copy, grab a pair of their favorite earbuds, and enjoy a “mobile home theater” experience unlike any other.

Wrapping Up

HTC has made something really impressive with the Thunderbolt, and powered by Verizon’s LTE network it’s a force to be reckoned with. Other Android phones are due soon with LTE, and even Voice over LTE, but to the early adopter the Thunderbolt is worse than drugs. It’s not perfect, or even a reasonable facsimile, but the device is by far my favorite Android phone on the market and it doesn’t seem that is going to change anytime soon.